As a former child of Kansas, I was disgusted to hear that the entire House delegation voted against the bill to support the Americans in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. The bill contained supplemental funding for flood insurance, to make payments toward the repair and replacement of homes and businesses damaged and lost in the hurricane that struck the Northeast – even as Kansas’ farmers were being paid for their drought-related losses under a similar federal program.

As a former child of Kansas, I was disgusted to hear that the entire House delegation voted against the bill to support the Americans in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut. The bill contained supplemental funding for flood insurance, to make payments toward the repair and replacement of homes and businesses damaged and lost in the hurricane that struck the Northeast – even as Kansas’ farmers were being paid for their drought-related losses under a similar federal program.

I am no longer proud to have come from Kansas. I will no longer go there to visit.

Something about the long trek from landing in ships in the Northeast and Gulf Coast to making their way to the plains of Kansas seems to have caused Kansas’ people, or at least its legislators, to become self-centered, bitter and crass. Their vote shamed the home state of Dwight Eisenhower and William Allen White. They have made Kansas into something I do not recognize, and do not intend to ever see again.

DAVID E. DILLMAN

Berwyn, Pa.

Gun is no toy

We all have our fun things to do. With some exceptions, we have the freedom to do those things. Perceptions of some of the fun stuff have changed over the years.

In about 1964, the M16 shoulder weapon replaced the M2 carbine at the McConnell Air Force Base security force. The M16’s appearance took some getting used to. It had a pistol grip and a stylized silhouette, and was very lightweight. It was hard to take it seriously because it looked like a toy. It was widely known as the “Mattel Special.”

As we were trained to use it, we were taught what it would do. It was only a .223 caliber, but it would pierce an automobile engine block. It would pierce and exit a car body, and it would do horrific damage to a human body. We therefore learned to take it seriously. The M15 version, .223 caliber, was the weapon used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School murders.

It no longer looks like a toy to me, and it was never meant to be a toy. It was made with a single purpose: to kill humans. Clearly, it is past time to use it as a toy, or to kill humans.

JIM McKINNEY

Derby

Mixed message

Ever since the Dec. 14 shooting of 20 students and six teachers in Newtown, Conn., I have seen lots of proposed solutions to prevent more of these type of shootings. If we really want to stop the culture of violence in this country, we should be asking an important question.

What is the message that we are sending to society? We mourn for these 20 children, as we should, but what about the nearly 4,000 unborn babies who are killed each day by abortion? Where are the tears for these babies? Science tells us that they are human, too.

Is it possible that we have been desensitized as to what abortion is? Abortion is so common that as a society we don’t even give it a second thought.

If we really want to end this culture of violence, let’s quit sending a mixed message. Let’s re-examine our values. Let’s show respect for all human lives from the point of conception until natural death.

TERRY BRENNAN

Wichita

Hood on wrong head

The Dec. 31 editorial cartoon showed an elephant wearing a Ku Klux Klan hood sitting behind a box of “denied votes.” A majority of people who belonged to the KKK were Democrats rather than Republicans. They also tried to prevent blacks from gaining their civil rights.

GORDON MICHEL

Wichita

Army of volunteers

The tax exemptions of the legitimate church family allow charitable and mission work, with an army of volunteers numbering into the millions (“Tax churches,” Jan. 2 Letters to the Editor). These many church congregations spend billions of dollars to support orphanages and the poor, homeless and hungry in the United States and overseas, including for medical clinics and engineering projects in undeveloped countries.

The church also teaches the 10 biblical commandments that have affected the morality of the nation from its founding. We defund the legitimate church and remove the church and the law of God from public view at our own peril.

The distortion of the Gospel and abuse by a group of lawyers at Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, or by any other church, should not be permitted.

Peter tells us that judgment starts first in the house of God. We need to judge ourselves, our family and our church to see if we are a leader or a follower. Stand up for righteousness and be a person of faith. Only then will violence slow.